"Centuries ago," Salem began, "four precious little girls were taken from me. I spent thousands of years wondering if any of them survived, if I had any descendants."

Salem moved closer to Cinder as she spoke. "You were briefly a mother yourself- or almost a mother, to a baby girl you wanted very much and would have named Ember. Surely you understand, to some degree, what it feels like to have a child taken from you. And yet, when I finally got my hands on a device that would give me the answers I've been searching for, you, a girl I'd considered to be part of my family, chose to take those answers away from me. Why did you do it, Cinder?"

A mixture of guilt and anger churned inside of Cinder. She felt some guilt over the genuine pain behind Salem's words, but there had also been anger building inside of her since she'd made her discoveries with the lamp. "I didn't do it to hurt you, I did it to find out the truth about you," she said firmly. "And you were lying about so much! Ozpin never abused you or your children, your own rage is what led to your loss. How could you lie about something like that? And you were planning to destroy the world!"

There was a tense silence between them after that. There was barely suppressed rage in Salem's expression, and some other emotion that Cinder couldn't quite place that filled Salem's next words.

"I was going to give you a new world. A world where you would never be harmed again. Powers beyond anything you could have achieved on your own. A husband who would ensure your position as queen of that world. I took you in and gave you a real future when your stepmother discarded you and left you to die at the hands of cruel huntsmen. And you turned your back on all of that- for Ruby Rose? Was she worth it?"

Cinder's heart ached at the mention of Ruby's name. "This goes beyond what Ruby meant to me. I don't want power if it means billons of innocent people have to die for me to get it!"

A second airship- this one black- pulled up alongside the hole in the school's wall.

"Since that's how you feel," Salem said, her tone going cold, "perhaps you'll be relieved to know that there is no longer a place for you in my new world. You've been replaced as heiress by Gillian. She and her brother will be the ones to benefit from my hard work."

"Are you going to kill me?" Cinder asked more calmly than she felt.

"No Cinder, I'm not going to kill you," Salem answered quietly. "But I also am no longer going to protect you."

Men came pouring out of the airship with weapons drawn, Prince Chad Kuro of Mistral strolling behind them. Cinder looked at their uniforms and paled.

These were Hunt operatives.

Cinder gathered fire in her human hand while preparing to lash out with her grimm arm. But one of the men shot her in her grimm arm and power left her.

A blood dust bullet. She couldn't use her semblance or her Maiden power.

Two men restrained her. Prince Chad stood close enough to kiss her, caressing her face. She bristled at his touch, his proximity, and the dead-eyed smile he focused on her.

"Hello, Beautiful Fire Maiden," he whispered. "You've been a very bad girl- your anti-redemption arc in Atlas has been quite dramatic. Prince Jaune Arc of Vale apparently isn't man enough to punish you for your crimes, but I am. The audience hates you so much that I can probably do anything to you in that arena, and people would say you deserved it. This is my story, and I have to murder you, Darling."

He whispered in her ear, "And I can't wait to hold your organs in my hands."

Panicked, Cinder looked up at Salem to find her watching them with what appeared to be an uncomfortable look on her face.

"You promised," Cinder said to her, her voice breaking. "You promised that you would never let anyone hurt me. Was anything you claimed to have felt for me real?"

But Salem didn't answer. She looked away from Cinder, and Cinder's heart broke as the men dragged her away.

She was in the same situation she'd been in at 15: someone who was supposed to be her motherly protector was offering her up to be abused and killed.

But this time was different, because her stepmother had never allowed Cinder to believe that she was loved by her.

...

Miles away in an airship, Neo was headed to Vacuo. She had a new mission from her Roman: she was to get the sword of destruction and bring it to Mistral to keep it out of Salem's hands.

-To Be Continued in May of this year (2025).